The bearable lightness of being

How are philosophical questions about what kinds of things there are to be understood and how are they to be answered? This paper defends broadly Fregean answers to these questions. Ontological categories-such as object, property, and relation-are explained in terms of a prior logical categorization of expressions, as singular terms, predicates of varying degree and level, etc. Questions about what kinds of object, property, etc., there are are, on this approach, reduce to questions about truth and logical form: for example, the question whether there are numbers is the question whether there are true atomic statements in which expressions function as singular terms which, if they have reference at all, stand for numbers, and the question whether there are properties of a given type is a question about whether there are meaningful predicates of an appropriate degree and level. This approach is defended against the objection that it must be wrong because makes what there depend on us or our language. Some problems confronting the Fregean approach-including Frege's notorious paradox of the concept horse-are addressed. It is argued that the approach results in a modest and sober deflationary understanding of ontological commitments

Perceptions of physiotherapists towards research: a mixed methods study

OBJECTIVES: To explore the perceptions of physiotherapists towards the use of and participation in research. DESIGN: Concurrent mixed methods research, combining in-depth interviews with three questionnaires (demographics, Edmonton Research Orientation Survey, visual analogue scales for confidence and motivation to participate in research). SETTING: One physiotherapy department in a rehabilitation hospital, consisting of seven specialised areas. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-five subjects {four men and 21 women, mean age 38 [standard deviation (SD) 11] years} who had been registered as a physiotherapist for a mean period of 15 (SD 10) years participated in this study. They were registered with the New Zealand Board of Physiotherapy, held a current practising certificate, and were working as a physiotherapist or physiotherapy/allied health manager at the hospital. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The primary outcome measure was in-depth interviews and the secondary outcome measures were the three questionnaires. RESULTS: Physiotherapists were generally positive towards research, but struggled with the concept of research, the available literature and the time to commit to research. Individual confidence and orientation towards research seemed to influence how these barriers were perceived. CONCLUSION: This study showed that physiotherapists struggle to implement research in their daily practice and become involved in research. Changing physiotherapists' conceptions of research, making it more accessible and providing dedicated research time could facilitate increased involvement in the physiotherapy profession

Modelling shear bands in a volcanic conduit: Implications for over-pressures and extrusion-rates

Shear bands in a volcanic conduit are modelled for crystal-rich magma flow using simplified conditions to capture the fundamental behaviour of a natural system. Our simulations begin with magma crystallinity in equilibrium with an applied pressure field and isothermal conditions. The viscosity of the magma is derived using existing empirical equations and is dependent upon temperature, water content and crystallinity. From these initial conduit conditions we utilize the Finite Element Method, using axi-symmetric coordinates, to simulate shear bands via shear localisation. We use the von Mises visco-plasticity model with constant magma shear strength for a first took into the effects of plasticity. The extent of shear bands in the conduit is explored with a numerical model parameterized with values appropriate for Soufriere Hills Volcano, Montserrat, although the model is generic in nature. Our model simulates shallow (up to approximately 700 in) shear bands that occur within the upper conduit and probably govern the lava extrusion style due to shear boundaries. We also model the change in the over-pressure field within the conduit for flow with and without shear bands. The pressure change can be as large as several MPa at shallow depths in the conduit, which generates a maximum change in the pressure gradient of 10's of kPa/m. The formation of shear bands could therefore provide an alternative or additional mechanism for the inflation/deflation of the volcano flanks as measured by tilt-metres. Shear bands are found to have a significant effect upon the magma ascent rate due to shear-induced flow reducing conduit friction and altering the over-pressure in the upper conduit. Since we do not model frictional controlled slip, only plastic flow, our model calculates the minimum change in extrusion rate due to shear bands. However, extrusion rates can almost double due to the ton nation of shear bands, which may help suppress volatile loss. Due to the paucity of data and large parameter space available for the magma shear strength our model results can only allow for a qualitative comparison to a natural system at this stage. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Delayed feedback as a means of control of noise-induced motion

Time--delayed feedback is exploited for controlling noise--induced motion in coherence resonance oscillators. Namely, under the proper choice of time delay, one can either increase or decrease the regularity of motion. It is shown that in an excitable system, delayed feedback can stabilize the frequency of oscillations against variation of noise strength. Also, for fixed noise intensity, the phenomenon of entrainment of the basic oscillation period by the delayed feedback occurs. This allows one to steer the timescales of noise-induced motion by changing the time delay.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. In the replacement file Fig. 2 and Fig. 4(b),(d) were amended. The reason is numerical error found, that affected the quantitative estimates of correlation time, but did not affect the main messag

Quantum Monte Carlo calculations of neutron-alpha scattering

We describe a new method to treat low-energy scattering problems in few-nucleon systems, and we apply it to the five-body case of neutron-alpha scattering. The method allows precise calculations of low-lying resonances and their widths. We find that a good three-nucleon interaction is crucial to obtain an accurate description of neutron-alpha scattering.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Complete chaotic synchronization in mutually coupled time-delay systems

Complete chaotic synchronization of end lasers has been observed in a line of mutually coupled, time-delayed system of three lasers, with no direct communication between the end lasers. The present paper uses ideas from generalized synchronization to explain the complete synchronization in the presence of long coupling delays, applied to a model of mutually coupled semiconductor lasers in a line. These ideas significantly simplify the analysis by casting the stability in terms of the local dynamics of each laser. The variational equations near the synchronization manifold are analyzed, and used to derive the synchronization condition that is a function of the parameters. The results explain and predict the dependence of synchronization on various parameters, such as time-delays, strength of coupling and dissipation. The ideas can be applied to understand complete synchronization in other chaotic systems with coupling delays and no direct communication between synchronized sub-systems.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure

Effect of plant regulators on set and berry development in certain seedless and seeded varieties of Vitis vinifera L.

Flowering clusters on ungirdled, nondefoliated shoots of 'Black Corinth', and girdled shoots defoliated to 1 /ia leaf, were dipped in 4-CPA at 15 ppm, or GA3 at 5 or 15 ppm. In nondefoliated shoots the set was decreased about 13 °/o at 15 ppm, but there were no significant differences among the other treatments. All treatments produced heavier rachises, berries, and clusters than the ungirdled, untreated controls. In defoliated shoots the set was decreased approximately 85 °/o by GA3 at 15 ppm. 4-CPA significantly increased set, but a mixture of GA3 and 4-CPA did not alter set.Similar experiments were carried on with the seeded varieties 'Pinot Chardonnay', 'Muscat of Alexandria', and 'Grenache'. Clusters on ungirdled nondefoliated shoots were dipped in GA3, 4-CPA, or a mixture of the two compounds. Like treatments were made on other clusters on shoots defoliated to 1/4 leaf. There was a varietal difference in response among the seeded varieties. The compounds injured the Muscat and reduced the set and berry size.All treatments increased the set of seedless berries on nondefoliated shoots of 'Pinot'. In both 'Chardonnay' and 'Grenache' there was a shift from seeded to seedless berries. Application of 4-CPA resulted in a significantly greater set in total number of berries on defoliated shoots of 'Chardonnay' and 'Muscat'.All solutions containing GA3 increased siz'e of seedless berries on nondefoliated shoots of 'Pinot'. GA3 applied at shatter stage increased size of seedless 'Muscat' berries. With one exception, there was no increase in size of one-, two-, or three-seeded berries.Percentage set was significantly increased in defoliated shoots of 'Muscat' by 4-CPA, and in 'Pinot' by 4-CPA or a mixture of 4-CPA and GA3.A kinin, benzyladenine, failed to increase set or berry size, but intensified the development of a purple anthocyanin pigment in 'Muscat'.The possible importance of the ratio of a leaf-produced set factor to gibberellin in berry set in 'Black Corinth' is discussed

Differential contribution of PB1-F2 to the virulence of highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza A virus in mammalian and avian species

Highly pathogenic avian influenza A viruses (HPAIV) of the H5N1 subtype occasionally transmit from birds to humans and can cause severe systemic infections in both hosts. PB1-F2 is an alternative translation product of the viral PB1 segment that was initially characterized as a pro-apoptotic mitochondrial viral pathogenicity factor. A full-length PB1-F2 has been present in all human influenza pandemic virus isolates of the 20(th) century, but appears to be lost evolutionarily over time as the new virus establishes itself and circulates in the human host. In contrast, the open reading frame (ORF) for PB1-F2 is exceptionally well-conserved in avian influenza virus isolates. Here we perform a comparative study to show for the first time that PB1-F2 is a pathogenicity determinant for HPAIV (A/Viet Nam/1203/2004, VN1203 (H5N1)) in both mammals and birds. In a mammalian host, the rare N66S polymorphism in PB1-F2 that was previously described to be associated with high lethality of the 1918 influenza A virus showed increased replication and virulence of a recombinant VN1203 H5N1 virus, while deletion of the entire PB1-F2 ORF had negligible effects. Interestingly, the N66S substituted virus efficiently invades the CNS and replicates in the brain of Mx+/+ mice. In ducks deletion of PB1-F2 clearly resulted in delayed onset of clinical symptoms and systemic spreading of virus, while variations at position 66 played only a minor role in pathogenesis. These data implicate PB1-F2 as an important pathogenicity factor in ducks independent of sequence variations at position 66. Our data could explain why PB1-F2 is conserved in avian influenza virus isolates and only impacts pathogenicity in mammals when containing certain amino acid motifs such as the rare N66S polymorphism